Mayor Rick Goldring said emergency crews were working to help retrieve passengers, and mentioned that the derailment had caused damage to some buildings.

Michelle Lamarche, a spokeswoman for Via Rail, said 75 people were onboard the train at the time of derailment. The AP confirmed with Lamarche that the three killed were railroad employees riding at the front of the train when it derailed.

Ontario's newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator, had an eyewitness account from one of the passengers, Hannah Lemke, who said, "It felt like we hit some bumps in the road and then the train jumped and it kept jumping and it tipped over to the side."

The area hospital has declared a code orange for external disaster, with spokesperson Jeff Vallentin saying, “There is a risk of some part of the train exploding.”